Ask the doctor: Why are waits in the emergency department so long?
You waited to be seen, so let's focus on that. Almost every emergency department in this country is overcrowded. About 50 million Americans lack health insurance, and for them, the emergency department may be the only way to get health care: doctors there see all patients who arrive, regardless of their health insurance status. Meanwhile, the number of emergency departments is decreasing. In 1991 there were about 2,500 departments in urban and suburban areas. Now there are about 1,800. Some additional staffing can help, but there's a fundamental problem of too many patients being funneled into too few departments.
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